Art – Page 75 – Frames of Reference

Seeing Double

Phoebe and Lydia Lake are artists. They’re also identical twins, which means they know a thing or two about symmetry. So last year, when they were 20 years old, the Tate Britain decided to film their first encounter with one of the museum’s most famous holdings, The Cholmondley Ladies, painted sometime around 1600-1610 by an unknown artist. An inscription describes the ladies as members of the Cholmondley family (pronounced “Chumley”) who were born on the same day, married on the same day and “brought to bed” (gave birth) on the same day. Continue reading “Seeing Double”

Paintings From The 1960s

A group of paintings by John Hubbard made during the 1960s will be exhibited at the New Art Centre near Salisbury, from 4 February until 15 April. His work from this time, though based on landscape, was essentialy dealing with atmosphere and the movement of light, rather than any specific feature of the landscape. He quotes Turner’s words, saying he was trying to consider “every part as receiving and emitting rays to every surrounding surface”. Continue reading “Paintings From The 1960s”

Mexican Miracle Paintings

Today I passed by the Wellcome Collection on Euston Road in London and noticed a banner advertising Mexican Miracle Paintings, an exhibition that opened in October 2011. I don’t know why I’d not seen it before. I pass by here frequently. It looks like a great exhibition. Continue reading “Mexican Miracle Paintings”

Golden Spider Silk

I woke last Friday morning to the gentle sounds of James Naughtie and Evan Davis and the amazing story of a cape of golden cloth woven from the silk of over a million spiders. Like something worthy of Jason and the Argonauts. The silk was harvested from female Golden Orb Spiders by 80 people over seven years in the highlands of Madagascar. The cape, together with a four metre long scarf, is being exhibited at the Victoria & Albert Museum. You can see more pictures and listen again to the story here on the Today programme website. Continue reading “Golden Spider Silk”

Metropolis II

This is a beautifully made short film about a kinetic sculpture by Chris Burden that took four years to build. It was filmed in his studio prior to being installed at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, where it opened last Saturday. It’s a wonderfully choreographed vision of modern city travel. Continue reading “Metropolis II”

Brangwyn’s Frieze

This is The Rowley Gallery in 1933. Business must have been good. It had expanded from a single shop at 140 to double the size at 140-142 Church Street, and the facade had been rebuilt featuring a carved frieze by Frank Brangwyn depicting life size sawyers, painters and carpenters. Continue reading “Brangwyn’s Frieze”

2012

A belated and animated happy new year from Mary Kuper. See more here.

Postcard From Southwold

We framed this drawing of Southwold two years ago. It was made by Ron Fuller and came from the Secret exhibition at the Royal College of Art in 2009. We were recently asked to frame four more from the exhibition in 2011 and so this framed postcard came back to us as a sample to copy. I was a little reluctant to give it back! It is such an evocative drawing and condenses many of Southwold’s most memorable landmarks into one composite image. Continue reading “Postcard From Southwold”

Pencil Drawing

During the last year I began a series of pencil drawings. Inspired by a recently re-read wonderful essay by Patrick Heron on Constable drawings, I thought that on recent trips to Weymouth and the Isle of Wight I would leave behind my bag of colours, rollers, sponges, etc. and get back to the basic pencil. Continue reading “Pencil Drawing”

Pina

Over Christmas I finally got to see Wim Wenders’ film Pina, a tribute to Pina Bausch and her Tanztheater Wuppertal. I saw them on stage in 1982 at Sadlers Wells, but never again until this wonderful movie. It had felt then that she brought the gravitas of Tarkovsky to dance, though from the evidence of this film she did lighten up a little in the intervening 30 years. I wish I had seen more of her. Continue reading “Pina”